Bradley Walsh has admitted he cheated in a game that helped get The Chase commissioned.
The star has served as the host of the ITV quiz show since its inception in 2009, and was involved in its development.
During an interview on Roman Kemp’s Capital Breakfast show, Bradley said that he didn’t exactly play by the rules when trying to convince ITV to make the show.
Revealing he would play mock versions of the show in an office with Chasers Mark Labbett and Shaun Wallace, Bradley recalled: “I said, ‘This is ludicrous. These questions are so easy.’
“They said, ‘What, do you think you could beat the Chaser?’ I said, ‘If I beat the Chaser, we’ll make a series, let’s do that.’ And they went, ‘Yeah, alright, if you can beat the Chaser,’ because they thought that the general public won’t be able to beat these gurus, right?”
While Bradley did end up beating the Chasers, he had rather a lot of help getting there.
He admitted: “What they didn’t realise was the sheets with the questions and the answers on were lying face down on my end of the desk. I could see the print through and I could read the answers backwards, [so] I read them.
“So every time they come in on the head-to-head as if they were at the table, I’d smash both of them. And as I walked away, I took the piece of paper and put it on the other table so no-one saw it. So, I’d actually cheated.”
Last week, The Chase made headlines when Mark “The Beast” Labbett walked off the ITV show following his defeat in the Final Chase.
The quizzing expert was seen punching the set at the end of last Wednesday’s show after the four remaining contestants managed to bag £21,000 with just a few seconds left on the clock.
He later apologised to viewers, admitting that it was “not how you should take defeat”.
Capital Breakfast With Roman Kemp airs weekdays at 6am. The Chase airs weekdays at 5pm on ITV.